Homo sapiens to Homo urbanus

3 Billion people, 50% of the world's population live in cities and it's growing at a rate of 180,000 per day. But in cities like Colombo in Sri Lanka half the population have no access to basic services like water and sanitation.Upgrading urban slums is a challenge for our century - to ignore it would be social dynamite.

Transcript

Alexandra de Blas: We are now living in what's known as the Urban Millennium. It's predicted that in five years time, half the world's population will live in cities and towns. That's about 3-billion people.

A lot of the growth is now taking place in developing countries.

Sharad Shankardass is the spokesperson for the United Nations Habitat program that deals with human settlements.

Sharad Shankardass: Between 1990 and 1995 alone, about 260-million people emigrated to the cities and towns in the developing world. That's like another Los Angeles every three months I think; it certainly is about 180,000 people per day. So the overall way we live is changing radically because in a way it's plateaued off in the developed world, in North America, in Latin America and in the Caribbean, in Europe it's plateaued off at 75% of the population being urbanised. But in the developing world, it's in the region of 35% to 36%, and they're set to sort of explode, or their cities are set to explode, and it's a huge problem and we have to take it very seriously.

Alexandra de Blas: Well how many people are living in squatters' camps or slums in these cities?

Sharad Shankardass: It's distressing that in the developing countries between 50% to 70% of the population can be found in slums and squatters' settlements, or spontaneous settlements as we prefer to call them. We call them spontaneous settlements because that exactly how they start. They turn into slums because then nobody gives them any kind of resources and no-one provides any infrastructure. In a lot of cities, even up to 60% of the population will be squashed into 5% of the land, with no rights at all, and that makes them even more secure, and that can lead to different kinds of problems.

Alexandra de Blas: Well security and conflict are very much in the minds of people around the globe at the moment. Are cities sitting on social dynamite if they ignore this problem of spontaneous settlements, or slums?

Sharad Shankardass: At UN Habitat, we do feel that if people do not design inclusive cities and do not take the concerns of the urban poor, they are encouraging conflict, because let's be very serious, if you have a whole population that has no rights, that doesn't own anything, but is not involved, or doesn't have any security, they have even less commitment to taking care of their immediate environment. There's even more reason to riot, you don't really have anything invested, why would you worry about destroying the shacks if and when you rioted? Well once people know they belong somewhere, and they have their rights, they will invest a great deal in taking care of it, improving it, and making sure that conflict is reduced.

Alexandra de Blas: Sevanatha is a non-government organisation working to help upgrade disadvantaged settlements in Sri Lanka. Executive Director H.M.U. Chularathna, showed me around one of Colombo's most disadvantaged slum areas.

We've just come to a settlement, we've walked up a narrow alleyway, and we're just behind the common toilets here; tell me a little bit about this settlement.

H.M.U. Chularathna: Yes, this settlement, which begins in the middle of the 1980s, with few people, less than ten, but now it has grown up to 400 families. The land belongs to a private individual, it's private land, and people have just come and encroached on it, and most of these people they're working in the city, in the business sector, informal sector activities and so on.

Alexandra de Blas: And is this illegal?

H.M.U. Chularathna: They don't have a land title, so it is illegal.

Alexandra de Blas: So we're just in front of the common toilets. They don't look as though they're in working order.

H.M.U. Chularathna: The problem is lack of toilets for them. Earlier in this toilet block there were 8 units, but now it doesn't function so they don't use it. Right now they have only 2 units.

Alexandra de Blas: For the whole settlement?

H.M.U. Chularathna: For the whole settlement, about 400 odd families. And for water, they have about six stand posts. Those are street taps, along this whole base, they have only six of them. And they are also with low pressure, so that you have them seriously affected by service problems.

Alexandra de Blas: What do people do when they need to go to the toilet here?

H.M.U. Chularathna: During our initial stage of data collection we found there are various alternatives people use, near a canal and a marsh area, so people use that open land on the canal side for defecation, and certain people who work in the city, they go to their workplaces and use the toilet there, that's what they have said. Here is a community leader, one of the community leaders in the settlement.

LANGUAGE

H.M.U. Chularathna: He says the major problems are toilets and then lack of water and also access roads. And he's just said drains for this water discharge. Because during the rainy season it gets flooded. When the water level goes up in the rainy season, all the canals get blocked and here of course this is a low lying area, the area gets flooded, so that's a frequent problem people are facing here.

Alexandra de Blas: OK, well let's continue on our journey. There's a three-wheeled vehicle just being moved so we can go past here. How much land do most people have here?

Alexandra de Blas: And how many people would live in one of those blocks.

H.M.U. Chularathna: Mostly a single family, but in certain places, one or two families they live. And on average, family size is about five people per family.

Alexandra de Blas: When the scale of the problem is so enormous, it's very easy to feel a sense of hopelessness about how to address the problem of urban slums. You actually feel more positive than ever right now; what's leading to you feeling that way?

Sharad Shankardass: Well I think there are two ways to answer this. One is we mustn't forget till the 19th century there was a huge amount of industrialisation and migration in Europe and the US, and all these cities that we think of as very grand and elegant cities now, were actually surrounded by slums. We're not saying that they don't have urban poor, but they certainly live in environments with at least basic infrastructure and so on. Now there is this huge transition period, thanks to the likes of journalists like yourself, you know accept Charles Dickens, Emile Zola, who fought like crazy for the rights of the poor during the 19th century, and what they do is, they help shift the world's perceptions of what can, should be done, with the poor and how to include them into their policymaking process. I think we're at a similar point in the cities of the developing world. I think we're over the point where people really want to exclude them, because they realise they're not going to go away, and they're beginning to realise we have to include them. And most cities have projects now where slum dwellers are being consulted, negotiations take place, resettlements take place, and I've seen some wonderful examples of before and after, and it's wonderful to visit the after, because people have a sense of pride and ownership, and really take care of the slums. So yes, I am optimistic, though I think it's going to be a huge struggle, and we must get the local authorities to take this issue more and more seriously.

Alexandra de Blas: Sharad Shankardass.

One local authority that is taking the upgrading of city slums very seriously is the City Council in Colombo. In April it launched a poverty profile which documents all the settlements in the city. This has enabled the poorest of the poor to be identified and prioritised in terms of need.

It found 1600 communities without access to basic services like water and sanitation, almost 50% of the population.

Thamara MallawaArachchi is the Council's Director of Engineering Development.

Thamara MallawaArachchi: Earlier we didn't have a clear policy to decide to whom we have to improve the services. Now from this poverty profile we know who should get the first services.

Alexandra de Blas: The city's going to start off with 20 under-served settlements, working to improve those; how are you going to tackle it?

Thamara MallawaArachchi: We have 60 streets in the city of Colombo, and we are going to first look into two districts, namely Districts 3 and 4, and we have identified the poorest of the poor groups and we have already selected pilot projects in those two districts. Then we will continue it for the whole city of Colombo later.

Alexandra de Blas: So when you look at a settlement, how do you go about starting? How do you decide what you're going to do and how you're going to improve it?

Thamara MallawaArachchi: First we had community awareness programs, and community will be trained. We had local nominations for this project. Based on this survey we have 20 indicators so then we know whether they need water supply or the sanitation or the street lighting etc. And we have consultations, frequent consultations in the community, and then we decide what are their priorities.

Alexandra de Blas: Are the people living in these settlements financially poor, or are they poor in terms of access to services?

Thamara MallawaArachchi: No, it has been found through other research they are not poor in terms of money, they are poor in terms of services. They prefer to have individual water connections and sometimes they don't have access, and some would say they want to have a sewerage system, sometimes the rest do not permit to have sewerage systems. We have identified those settlements and now we are going to do the improvements according to their needs.

H.M.U. Chularathna: Would you like to go inside and see some of these houses?

Alexandra de Blas: OK, yes, that would be great.

LANGUAGE

H.M.U. Chularathna: They've made a few plans, mostly temporary.

Alexandra de Blas: So the walls are made out of wood, almost like a weatherboarding, with a concrete floor, and a galvanised iron roof, and there are two rooms.

H.M.U. Chularathna: Yes, we can get the information from this family. (LANGUAGE)

A single family, but four persons living in this house.

Alexandra de Blas: There's a fire in the corner here, and what are you cooking for dinner?

H.M.U. Chularathna: (LANGUAGE) She is going to cook rice and Brinjal curry for lunch. And what she says, they make foor and sell it in these nearby boutique centres like that in the morning, so that is how they -

Alexandra de Blas: Make a living. And what is her name and her daughter's name?

H.M.U. Chularathna: Her name is Malika. Her daughter's name is Thiungi. She has been working in a coir factory, coconut fibre kind of thing, and then she lost her fingers you know, through a machine.

Alexandra de Blas: So she's lost all the fingers on her right hand?

H.M.U. Chularathna: Yes. And then she has been paid only 5,000 rupees as compensation, nothing else. Now she can't work, so now she's making these foods in the morning and selling them.

Alexandra de Blas: And can you make a living, selling these food items?

H.M.U. Chularathna: She can manage.

Alexandra de Blas: And where do you sleep in the evenings?

H.M.U. Chularathna: They live on the floor. They don't have even mats, they just sleep on the floor.

Alexandra de Blas: On the concrete floor.

H.M.U. Chularathna: Yes.

Alexandra de Blas: It was a pleasure to meet you.

Malika: Thank you.

Alexandra de Blas: Living in illegal dwellings like Malika and her family do, leads to other forms of discrimination, particularly if they're sited along a roadside reservation, railway track or canal. For example, without an official address, kids can't go to school, perpetuating the poverty cycle. But the Colombo Council is working to change this.

Thamara MallawaArachchi: Some settlements are located in road reservations etc., so we cannot give the assessment numbers to them. But now our Council management is taking steps to regularise them by giving assessment numbers. So till they get the assessment number, they don't get recognition from the society. Even when they want to enter a child into a school, it affects them very much.

Alexandra de Blas: Are the problems associated with giving these settlements assessment numbers, because in a sense then you're giving them legal rights, as it were, which they didn't previously have; is that a problem?

Thamara MallawaArachchi: Yes, it's a problem, but we have got the Attorney-General's opinion on that, and we are in favour of giving the assessment numbers, especially the Mayor, but still the problem was not sorted out. That's the legal barrier for them.

Alexandra de Blas: So that's one you're still working on?

Thamara MallawaArachchi: Yes, it's in progress now.

Alexandra de Blas: How confident are you that the settlements in the city of Colombo can be upgraded over time?

Thamara MallawaArachchi: It's on the move actually, it's going in a positive direction and the current direction, now even our management top priorities to improve the settlements. Unless you improve them, there will be social problems in the future.

Alexandra de Blas: Thamara MallawaArachchi from the Colombo Council.

In some parts of the city, resettlement and service upgrading seems to be working well. In 1998 the Purarama Community moved from a roadside reservation owned by the Road Development Authority. Each family was given a 50-square metre plot, and 15,000 Rupees in compensation. They now own their land, and have water, electricity and waste water drains. The sewerage is on its way.

H.M.U. Chularathna: See what they have constructed here and how they're using those facilities and things like that.

Alexandra de Blas: So between the houses there is a drain; what goes into this drain?

H.M.U. Chularathna: Stormwater, and then are these two pipes, one is for kitchen waste, the other one is bathroom waste.

Alexandra de Blas: Where does that waste go?

H.M.U. Chularathna: They have a filter system. This is a new system they introduced. And then finally, through the filter goes to the nearby canal.

Alexandra de Blas: And how is it filtered?

H.M.U. Chularathna: It's through a filter bit system. In fact it's a design operated by the National Housing Development Authority. But fortunately here, this toilet waste, or sewerage, is not going into the canal, because they have separate septic tanks. Now we have a spokesperson of CDC. They are very keen, organising the community and getting people's support for this work.

Alexandra de Blas: So I'd like to ask the president, what has been the biggest challenge in putting this community together.

H.M.U. Chularathna: In selecting the priorities, they consulted the community, and then the CDC officials, they were thinking the people most needed the toilet, but the community demanded this kind of drain system for draining the waste water. So they considered that as a first priority. Earlier, because they didn't have a drain system, waste water was just flowing all over, and children get sick and people can't walk and things like that. Now they find it useful, and also they're happy to ensure the cleanliness of the community.

Alexandra de Blas: Millennium Development goals agreed to in the year 2000 are providing a focal point for governments and aid organisations to seriously address issues of poverty and lack of services around the world. They include targets to halve poverty and increase access to water and sanitation.